Less than two weeks after a New York regional newspaper created a national controversy by publishing an online map of registered gun owners in its circulation area, the Journal News has once again brought attention to itself by hiring armed guards to protect its employees, an obvious case of hypocrisy given the publication’s virulently anti-gun editorial stance.

As you would expect, the Journal News, which had previously touted its love of transparency and an informed public when it published its database of pistol permit holders, did not reveal this information to the public. The news was broken instead by the Rockland Times, a rival newspaper.

The controversy began December 23 when the paper published an interactive map with “pushpins” indicating the names and addresses of everyone listed as having a permit to carry a handgun within Westchester and Rockland counties. It also included a separate map of individuals who had previously applied for a permit in Rockland county.

The publication provoked outrage across the internet as people criticized the Journal News for endangering public safety by revealing this information since such households could potentially become targets for gun theft during their owners’ absences. Things further developed after a blogger published his own map of Journal News employees’ residences in the same tone of…